


Guess Who

by FrancesOsgood



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-24
Updated: 2014-03-03
Packaged: 2018-01-13 16:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1233649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrancesOsgood/pseuds/FrancesOsgood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I really should have known we'd get caught sooner or later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red-faced and Red-handed

I really should have known we’d get caught sooner or later. I guess it had been going on so long without us getting caught that I took it for granted that we never would. After all, we had been doing it for almost six months and no one even suspected a thing. 

By “we,” I mean Jareth and me. And by “doing it,” I mean doing IT. In six months, we’d had sex on nearly every flat surface in my house (and some not-so-flat ones too.)   
He came to me nearly every night after Dad and Karen went to bed. He also came to me whenever they went out and took Toby with them. 

More and more I found myself begging out of family dinner outings or pretending to be sick in order to stay home alone. Who needs crowded restaurants serving overpriced and undercooked pasta when you could stay home and have your toes curl?

Anyway, I’d look sick and pitiful until they left and then I’d tear off my fluffy pink robe to reveal my naughty black lingerie and then call for a certain smexy Goblin King to come rip it off with his teeth. I was usually sleeping soundly when my family returned.

I remember Karen coming up to my room after one particularly energetic romp and placing a perfectly manicured hand on my forehead.

“Sarah!” she cried. “You’re so flushed and feverish! You must feel awful!”

I was tempted to say, “No, after multiple orgasms, I’m feeling pretty damn good,” but I kept my mouth shut. No reason to give the poor woman a brain aneurism. 

When Dad told me that he wanted the family to go away for the weekend, my mind went into overdrive. I knew there was no way I was going anywhere. The possibility of a weekend home alone (but not alone) was far too tempting. A weekend alone with Jareth. He could stay the night and we could wake up together and have coffee in bed. Or we could skip coffee and just have each other in bed, or on the sofa, or on the kitchen table.   
All. Weekend. Long.

“I have to study,” I blurted to my dad. He looked at me strangely.

“What?” he asked.

“I have to study for a Biology exam. It’s a huge grade and I’ll be reading all weekend.” I gushed on. “I’ll be okay though. You guys go ahead and I’ll just stay here and make use of the peace and quiet.”

Dad smiled and nodded. There was no way he was going to argue against me studying. I overheard him talking to Karen later about how pleased he was that I was taking college so seriously. I had to laugh. Poor dad. The only Biology I was going to be studying that weekend was Jareth’s hot bod pressed up against mine. I suppose that’s why it was such a huge surprise when, on Friday night, my dad and Karen walked into their bedroom and found me riding Jareth cowgirl-style on their bed.

“Sarah Elizabeth Williams!” my dad yelled from the open door.

Startled, I threw myself off Jareth and onto the floor.

“Dad! Karen!” I cried as I scrambled around for something to throw over myself. “What are you doing home?” I grabbed a folded blanket from the end of the bed and wrapped it around myself.

“The B and B lost our reservation,” my father answered icily. He was glaring at Jareth who gracefully swept his long legs over the side of the bed and stood, making no effort to cover his nakedness. From the doorway Karen gasped.

“Studying ‘Biology’, huh?” my dad asked, his eyes still trained coldly on Jareth. “Does ‘Biology’ have a name?”

Jareth drew himself up to his full height and stared down his nose at my dad.

“I am Jareth, King of the Goblins. Who are you?” he asked haughtily.

“I’m Robert, Father of Sarah,” my dad replied through clenched teeth. “And you have about five seconds to get your pale naked ass out of my bedroom and out of my house before I fill you full of lead shot.”

“Daddy, don’t be so dramatic,” I groaned, rolling my eyes. “I’m eighteen for Christ’s sake…”

“Sarah, language,” warned Karen.

“Oh good grief!” I cried. “This is why I wanted my own apartment, but no…”

My dad turned to me angrily. “That’s why you wanted to move out? So you could sleep around with a bunch of glam rock rejects?”

“Robert, please calm down,” Karen tried to interject.

“I will not calm down, Karen! Did you see what they were doing? In our bed?”

“Robert--”

Everyone started talking loudly at once. Well, everyone except Jareth. He just stood back and watched, no doubt amused by the silly mortals getting so worked up over a perfectly natural and normal act.

“Jareth, a little help here?” I cried over the din. 

He smiled knowingly and waved his hand and my father disappeared.

“What did you do with my dad?” I asked him.

“Oubliette,” he replied simply

“Jareth…”

“Just until he calms down and we can talk rationally,” Jareth assured me.

“Great,” I grunted sarcastically. “I’ll never see my father again.”

I knew what a stubborn and temperamental man my dad could be. After all, I had inherited my nature from him.

“Never fear, Precious,” Jareth purred before kissing the top of my head. He turned to Karen who had gone even paler than usual. He gave her a graceful little bow and then with a snap of his fingers he was dressed from head to toe in black leather and armor.

“A pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Williams,” he said, flashing a brilliant smile.

“Likewise,” squeaked Karen.

Jareth winked at me before disappearing in a cloud of smoke and glitter.

The room fell silent and I shifted uncomfortably, unsure what to say to relieve the awkwardness. Leave it to Karen to make things even more awkward.

“Well, he seems nice,” she cooed.

“Oh dear God, please kill me,” I muttered to myself.

“I could use some tea,” Karen continued. “Would you like something to drink, Sarah?”

“Do we have any tequila?”  
*********************************************************************************************************************************  
“So…” said Karen, setting the cup of tea in front of me. She took a seat across from me at the kitchen table and looked at me expectantly.

“What do you want to know?” I asked with a sigh.

“Everything,” replied Karen, leaning forward. 

I sighed again. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d want to know how I ended up getting into an intimate relationship with an immortal being from an Otherwordly realm.”

I started at the beginning and told Karen the whole story. She listened intently, her eyes growing wide with wonder as I described wishing Toby away, running the labyrinth, oubliettes, talking hats, stenchy bogs, roofie peaches, and my eventual defeat of Jareth.

Karen sat back when I had finished. “So, let me get this straight,” she began, “He took your brother away, made you run his maze, drugged you, danced with you, offered you your dreams and then disappeared?”

“Well, yes. More or less,” I told her.

“And then what?”

I took a sip of my tea before answering. “And then I didn’t see him or hear from him again for nearly three years. Until my last birthday.”

“What happened on your birthday?”

I set my cup down on the table and glanced at the kitchen wall, slightly embarrassed at how I had behaved.

“Well, it’s really pretty stupid now,” I began slowly. “I was upset because I was turning eighteen and you guys weren’t making a big deal of it. Dad had that meeting and you and Toby took off and went to the movies and I was home all alone on my birthday. I was feeling pretty rotten and sorry for myself so I went out and bought myself a birthday cupcake and stuck a candle in it and…I made a wish.”

I paused, hoping Karen would understand what I was getting at and that I wouldn’t be forced to explain further, but no such luck. Karen gave me a confused look over her tea cup and I reluctantly continued.

“I wished for the Goblin King to come and talk to me.”

“Talk?” asked Karen, raising a sculpted eyebrow.

“Yes, talk,” I replied with a shrug. “I just wanted someone to talk to. I was all alone and it was my birthday…”

“And he came?”

“Yes. He came and we talked.”

“About?”

“About everything: me, him, you and Dad and Toby, goblins… We walked in the park and all over town and just talked. Then he brought me home.”

“And then?” Karen asked.

“And then he kissed me. And I kissed him back. And then we…”

I stopped, feeling my cheeks burning red.

“And then you gave him your flower,” Karen finished for me with a pathetic sigh and a goofy grin.

I leaned forward and laid my head down on the table.

“Yes Karen,” I groaned. “I gave him my flower.”

I was rescued from further embarrassment at the hands of my stepmother by the arrival of Toby who had thankfully been watching television in the den since he and Karen and Dad had gotten back.

“Where’s Daddy?” he asked.

Karen and I looked at one another warily.

“Daddy’s popped out for a minute,” I told my brother. “He’ll be back soon.”

 _I hope._  
***


	2. He Says/She Says

**Jareth**

******

I remained hidden in the shadows of the oubliette while Robert Williams ranted and raved and swore to do all manner of wretched things to me. He threatened to sue me, though what he would want with a crumbling castle, a horde of goblins and a brood of black chickens I can’t imagine. He threatened to have me incarcerated, but I’m fairly sure he knew his case would never stand up in any court. After all, his daughter was of age, and even if she had not been, I have on numerous occasions defended myself more than adequately before a judge and jury. Williams continued in his tirade as I calmly listened from my dark corner of the oubliette. He swore to, and I quote, “kick my skinny ass.” I almost chuckled aloud at that one. The thought of that pudgy, balding CPA going against me in a physical fight was beyond amusing. When he threatened to kill me I could hide no longer. I stepped from the shadows in my black leather and armor and was pleased when Williams visibly shrank back from my presence.

“Really, Mr. Williams,” I said calmly. “Is all this necessary? Your daughter and I were merely finding pleasure in one another. Surely that’s not worth murder.”

Robert Williams furrowed his brow and growled at me, “My Sarah is worth it,” he spat. “She’s an impressionable girl and you have no business fooling around with her.”

I shook my head at the little red-faced man. “I must disagree,” I told him as I paced in a circle around him. “Your daughter, though impressionable, is hardly a girl. And I do have every right to ‘fool around with her’ as you say since she called on me.” 

Robert Williams stared at me in disbelief. “She didn’t…” he muttered half to himself. 

“Oh but she did,” I informed him. “Twice now, in fact.”

“She wished her brother away, didn’t she?” Williams asked softly. I halted in my pacing and turned to him, surprised by his question.

“How--?” I started to ask, but Sarah’s father shook his bald head and gave a wistful chuckle.

“Who do you think gave her the damn book?” he asked. 

 

**Sarah**

******

“Are you madly in love?” Karen asked from out of the blue. I nearly choked on my tea.

“What?” I asked, coughing and sputtering. “No! I mean, we’re just… I like him a lot. I haven’t really thought that far ahead. We have a bit of an odd history, after all.”

Karen nodded. “Of course,” she agreed. “Still, lots of relationships have started under stranger circumstances.”

“Yeah, there was that whole Frog/Prince thing,” I said sarcastically.

“You know what I mean, Sarah,” Karen replied, taking a dainty sip of her tea. “Lots of couples start out as less than friends and then grow to love each other.” She got a goofy grin on her face as she continued. “Maybe the two of you can be like that movie, _When Harry Met Sally._ ” 

My mind immediately went to the deli scene and Meg Ryan’s over-the-top “orgasm.” After six months of brain-rattling sex, I could hardly imagine ever having to fake it with Jareth. He was a pro at anticipating my desires and needs and usually had me over the edge before my clothes hit the floor. Even at that moment, sitting at the kitchen table with my stepmother, I could feel myself flushing at the thought of him: his pale, smooth, magic fingers, his long lithe body, his hot probing tongue… My mouth went dry and I took a big gulp of tea.

“I certainly hope the two of you are using protection,” said Karen.

I spit tea all over the kitchen wall.

 

**Jareth**

******

“So, after three years she called on you again and you went to her and…” Robert Williams hesitated to continue.

“Made love to her, yes,” I finished for him. 

He cleared his throat and tugged at his collar. He seemed terribly uncomfortable and I assumed it was the rather stale, musty air in the oubliette. It could be quite oppressive. It was important, however, that I keep him contained. If Robert Williams was anything at all like his daughter, my kingdom would be in danger of wreck and ruin if he ever got loose.

“Just what are your intentions toward Sarah?” her father asked flatly.

I smiled, pleased at his gallant show of paternal concern, however late.

“I’d like to marry her if I may, Mr. Williams,” I told him, playing the part of the Suppliant Suitor.

“Have you asked her yet?” questioned Williams.

“Informally, yes,” I answered. “I asked her three years ago and she turned me down flat, but she was a bit young then. I haven’t repeated the offer. Yet.”

“Why not?”

I thought for a moment before answering. “The status of our relationship is…uncertain. She knows I love her, but I’m not quite sure she reciprocates.”

“And you haven’t discussed this with Sarah? You haven’t tried to talk to her about it?”

“Well…no,” I told him. “Sarah hasn’t really been much for conversation lately. She pounces on me as soon as I enter the room, and I’m sure you can understand how difficult it is to talk to a woman who has her hand down your pants.”

Robert Williams shuddered. “Oh. Yes. Certainly.”

 

**Sarah**

******

“I can make you an appointment to get some birth control if you’d like, Sarah. Dr. Greene is wonderful and she won’t treat you like you’re a whore or anything. She’s all for women’s rights and sexual exploration and all that,” Karen offered.

I silently prayed for the earth to open up and swallow me whole. At least with that there was a chance that I would end up in the Underground. 

“I don’t need you to do that, Karen,” I replied slowly. “I’ve been on the pill for over a year, and besides Jareth always…takes precautions.” I let Karen come to her own conclusions on that one. His magic assured that he wouldn’t impregnate me until we decided to let it happen, but if Karen chose to believe we were using condoms I wasn’t going to tell her otherwise. I didn’t need her dragging me to the drug store and asking me about Jareth’s “size.” This conversation had been mortifying enough.

“So…how is he?” Karen asked slyly.

“What?!” Our mortifying conversation had just turned into the stuff of nightmares.

Karen leaned forward and pitilessly continued. “Does he, you know… get you there?”

_Oh dear bog-slogging goblins, why are there no sharp objects within arm’s reach?_  
***


	3. The Linguini Incident

"Where do you see your relationship going, Sarah?" Karen asked seriously. Her question wasn't the gushy, prying kind she had been asking all evening. I could tell that she had asked in earnest. I shrugged.

"I don't know," I told her. "Like I said earlier, I haven't thought that far ahead.

Karen frowned and stirred her tea. "Sarah," she began. "You've been sleeping with this guy for six months. It's time to think about it. What do you really want? Do you want a relationship or do you want a booty call? You can't expect this Jareth to wait forever for you to make up your mind about him, can you?"

I didn't reply. I was still in brain-lock over my stepmother using the phrase "booty call." Correctly.

"I wish Jareth were here," I mumbled under my breath. I had only hoped for a respite from the uncomfortable interrogation of my stepmother. I hadn't really expected him to grant my wish. Grant he did however, poofing into the kitchen in a cloud of smoke and glitter.

"You rang?" he asked flirtatiously.

"Oh good, you're back," smiled Karen. "Did you and Robert have a nice chat?"

I looked around. "Where is my dad, Jareth?" I asked.

"Oops," he replied sheepishly, laying a gloved hand playfully over his mouth.

"Jareth…"

He smiled and snapped his fingers and my father was popped into his seat at the kitchen table. I expected him to be bothered or angry, but he just shook his head and reached for his newspaper.

"I'm going to whip us up something nice for dinner," Karen chimed in. "You'll stay, won't you Jareth?"

I started to protest, but Jareth interrupted with a charming smile and a polite "I'd love to."

"Wonderful!" cried Karen, clapping her hands together. She set about pulling out pots and pans and ingredients, chattering all the while. "I've been trying to teach Sarah to cook," she told Jareth as he stood over her shoulder and watched as she chopped vegetables and tossed them into a sauté pan. "Unfortunately," she continued, "Sarah gets much too preoccupied and lets everything burn. I can't tell you how many of my good casserole dishes she's ruined with her daydreaming." She tut-tutted to herself as she expertly flipped the vegetables in the sauté pan with a flick of her wrist.

"I hope you've got a good cook, Jareth. You look as if you could stand to eat a good meal or two. You're awfully thin. Do you like linguini?"

"I love it," Jareth answered.

"Oh good," gushed Karen. "Of course, don't expect much in the way of fine cuisine from Sarah. She has many other wonderful qualities though, which I'm sure you know. And anyway, I don't suppose the Gremlin Queen would be expected to cook."

Jareth laughed and I felt the color drain from my face. "Dear sweet baby Jesus, if you'll just kill me now and spare me this torture, I promise I'll sing in the angel choir and scrub the Pearly Gates with a toothbrush for all eternity," I silently prayed.

"They are not gremlins, Mrs. Williams, they are goblins," Jareth corrected.

"Oh right!" replied Karen. "I get the two mixed up. Gremlins are the ones you're not supposed to feed after midnight, aren't they?"

"Yes," answered Jareth. "Although it's probably best not to feed goblins after midnight either, but only because they get such terrible indigestion and gas."

"Really?" asked Karen, leaning forward as if he had said the most fascinating thing in the world.

That was it. I grabbed Jareth by the arm. "Can we talk?" I asked as I began pulling him toward the den.

"Wait," said Karen. You two stay in here and chat and your father and I will run upstairs and get changed out of these dusty travelling clothes. Come along, Robert."

My dad put aside his newspaper with a grunt and pushed away from the table. He gave Jareth a strange sideways glance before turning and heading upstairs. After a moment, Karen stuck her perfectly coiffed head back into the kitchen and smiled at Jareth.

"Stir that pot for me, will you Jareth?" she asked. "I don't want the noodles to stick."

"Yes, Ma'am," Jareth replied graciously.

Karen gave a pleased sigh and left the room and I rolled my eyes.

"I think she likes me," Jareth told me as he dutifully stirred the pot with a wooden spoon.

"Of course she does," I answered wearily before flopping down into one the kitchen chairs.

"What is it, Precious?" Jareth asked, stepping toward me. Remembering the pasta pot, he gestured with his finger and the wooden spoon jumped to attention and began stirring on its own accord. Jareth leaned over my chair and kissed the top of my head.

"Don't you want your parents to like me?" he asked.

I looked up at him and sighed. "Of course I do," I told him. "It's just that…well, I hadn't intended on them meeting you just yet.'

"Perhaps not," said Jareth, "but what's done is done. We'll simply have to deal with it. All things considered, our first meeting could have gone a lot worse."

"Jareth, they walked in on us having sex!"

Jareth just smiled and shrugged and began opening cabinets doors and taking things out and sniffing and tasting them.

"That's not all," I continued. "Karen's been asking a lot of questions about our relationship."

"What kinds of questions?"

"You know, what are we? Where is our relationship going?"

"Interesting," said Jareth as he snorted a pinch of rosemary. "Your father asked me much the same thing."

"What did you tell him?" I asked nervously.

"The truth," Jareth answered. "That I wish to marry you. He seemed rather pleased by the idea."

"Oh," I replied numbly. "That's…that's good."

Jareth gave me a knowing smile and cocked his head to one side. "Sarah," he began, "I think the most important thing is how _you_ feel about the idea."

"I…I… Wait, are you asking me to marry you?"

"That was the idea, yes."

"Hmph," I snorted, turning away from him. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that, Your Majesty," I said with mock petulance.

He grinned and placed his hand under my chin and turned my face toward him.

"Sarah Elizabeth Williams-"

BUUUUUUUZZZZZZZ! The stove timer rang.

"Oh good," said Karen as she bustled back into the kitchen wearing a lavender pantsuit with massive shoulder pads. "Everything's done." She grabbed her oven mitts and reached for the pasta pot, then drew back.

"Jareth dear, can you call off your spoon? I need to drain the pasta."

Jareth's eyes didn't leave my face, but he gestured with his finger again and the wooden spoon fell lifelessly against the side of the pot with a clatter.

Karen turned and smiled. "You are a nifty thing to have around, aren't you?" she asked.

Seeing our intense staring, she blushed. "I've interrupted something, haven't I?"

Jareth finally turned and faced her. "It's quite all right, Mrs. Williams. Sarah and I can finish our chat later. Can't we, Love?"

I just nodded.

"Well then," Karen began, "You two get washed up for dinner. Or can you just magic your hands clean, Jareth?"

Jareth chuckled. "I think mundane soap and water will do the trick better than smoke and glitter."

Karen laughed out loud and wiped a dainty tear from the corner of her eye. "Oh Jareth," she cooed. "You're such a card."

Jareth turned to me and gave me a Cheshire Cat grin and I just groaned. Dinner was going to be excruciating…


	4. The Mouths of Babes

"Wine, Precious?" Jareth asked, holding up the bottle of Cabernet.

"Dear god, yes," I sighed.

From across the table I saw my father's eyebrows go up.

"Sarah, you aren't old enough to drink," he warned in a very fatherly tone.

"Oh Robert," said Karen. "It won't hurt this once. Besides, we have a guest." She smiled warmly at Jareth. "Go ahead," she told him, "just not too much." She winked and disappeared into the living room to collect Toby and get him ready for dinner.

Jareth smiled graciously and filled my glass a third of the way up. I frowned, but he winked at me and leaned in close to whisper in my ear.

"Drink away, Precious," he said, the words tickling the sensitive shell of my ear. "The glass will stay filled precisely to that line no matter how much you sip."

I took a drink and looked at my glass and discovered that he was correct. The level of wine in my glass had stayed the same. It had become a bottomless well of sweet parent-buffering ambrosia. I sighed and sat back in my chair. Maybe (with the help of wine and magic) I could survive dinner.

"Here we are," sang Karen as she re-entered the kitchen carrying my squirming four-and-a-half-year-old brother. She placed him in his booster seat and tied a kitchen cloth around his neck. "We don't want to get all messy from our linguini, do we Toby-Woby?" she cooed.

I groaned and Jareth chuckled as Toby scooped up a heaping forkful of pasta and shoved it in his chubby face. "Yummy!" he said with noodles hanging out of his mouth. He slurped the noodles the rest of the way in and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, smearing red sauce from one side of his face to the other.

"Tobias Bartholomew Williams!" cried Karen. "Where are your manners, young man? Don't you see we have company?" She smiled weakly at Jareth. "You'll have to excuse him, Jareth," she said. "We're still trying to table train him."

"Trust me, I've seen much worse from my goblins," Jareth told her with a laugh. "At least he isn't-"

"BRAAAAAAAAACK!" belched my brother. The sound was disgusting enough, but the smell was ten times worse, somewhere between fried bologna and spoiled deviled eggs.

"Well that was certainly…bog-worthy," Jareth said appreciatively. Toby looked up and smiled proudly.

"Who are you?" he asked Jareth.

"You don't remember me?"

"Nope, but Mommy says you're Sawah's boyfriend and that I have to be weally good, but that's bo-wing," Toby answered.

Jareth laughed and leaned toward where Toby sat covered in sauce in his booster seat. "I know just how you feel, Toby. Being good can be rather tedious."

My father cleared his throat and I caught a look of disapproval. I fidgeted in my seat trying to think of something to say.

"Tobes, this is Jareth," I said finally. "You've met him once before when you were really little."

Toby's face scrunched up as he studied Jareth for a moment. Then, as if a light had gone off in his little toddler head, he smiled big and bright.

'I know you!" he exclaimed.

"You do?" we all asked at the same time.

"Yes!" said Toby, clapping his sticky hands together. "You're Oh-Jaweth!"

"Oh-Jareth?" Karen asked with a laugh. "What do you mean, Toby?"

"Oh-Jaweth!" Toby repeated. We stared at him blankly and he continued. "Oh Jaweth…" he said drawing out the words. "Ooooh Jaweth! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Jaweth! Jaweth! Jaweth! Jaweth! OH JAWETH!" he crescendoed. "That's what Sawah says," Toby told everyone at the table before shoving another forkful of linguini into his mouth.

There was dead silence at the table for what seemed like an eternity, and then slowly everyone turned to look at me. I suddenly became very warm and I knew I must be scarlet red from the top of my head to my toes. I had forgotten that my bed and Toby's were separated only by one fairly thin wall. He had no doubt heard Jareth and me having sex and had just related what he heard to my parents. I tried to slither out of my chair and under the kitchen table.

"Well," Karen chimed in finally. "That answers _that_ question."

I was preparing to make my escape to my room to either drown myself in my bathtub or throw myself from my second-story window when Jareth stood, wine glass in hand, and addressed my dad and Karen.

"Mr. and Mrs. Williams," he purred. "I must tell you how grateful I am to meet you at last. You are the two people responsible for turning my precious Sarah into the graceful and dignified lady that she is today." He turned and looked down at where I was attempting to crawl out the kitchen door. "Sarah dear, do get up. We have an announcement to make. Or would you rather be regaled further by your delightful baby brother?"

He offered me his hand and helped me stand before turning back to my parents and Toby.

"I am very pleased to announce that, after much pleading, begging and crying, I have at last consented to marry your daughter Sarah."

I punched him in the arm. "You lying bastard," I hissed. "I never once-" He silenced me with an enthusiastic kiss. Karen clasped her hands together and looked as if she were going to burst into buckets of tears. My father grunted. Toby slurped up some more pasta.

"Jareth," I protested angrily once he'd released me.

"Don't fret, Precious," he replied. "They know I'm just joking." He grinned at me and I couldn't help grinning back at the infuriating man/being/creature/whatever.

Karen jumped up from her seat and drew us both into a big hug. "Oh, I'm so happy for you two!" she gushed as she squeezed us breathless.

"Um, thanks" I managed to squeak.

"We have so much to plan!" Karen continued. "Have you set a date yet? Will you marry here or in Fairyland or wherever it is you live, Jareth? You'll have to send me a list of all the Fairy people you want to invite. We have quite a large family—oh my! Jareth, we'll need to meet your parents! I'm sure they are lovely! What's your mother's name…"

Karen prattled on as she began clearing up the dishes and I plopped back down in my chair. Jareth sat down beside me and took my hand.

"There," he said gently. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

I just smiled and shook my head. It had been beyond mortifying, but somehow I had not died of embarrassment. Either I was stronger than I thought, or the wine was.

"So…" Jareth said with a sheepish grin on his face. "About my parents…"

"What?" I asked nervously.

"Are you busy Thursday evening?" asked Jareth.

"Oh. Sweet. Lord," I groaned.

The End


End file.
